Monday, April 7, 2014

Yanks Running Wild To Make Up For Early Lack Of Power

It took about 5 and a half games for the Yankees to hit their first home run of the 2014 season. Naturally, that home run came from Brett Gardner yesterday and not one of the power hitters in the middle of the lineup. For the most part, those players have gotten off to slow starts at the dish and it's guys like Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Yangervis Solarte who have carried the offensive load in their place.

The lone HR puts the Yankees 29th in MLB in that department, ahead of only the Royals, the last homer-less team in baseball. While that level of power production won't cut it long-term and there's no reason to expect that it will continue on this slow path, the impact of the outage has been lessened somewhat by what the Yanks have done on the basepaths. Their 8 stolen bases ties them for the most in MLB with the Dodgers, a position that's very unfamiliar for the traditionally powerful and patient Yankee offense. Gardner and Brian Roberts each have 2, Ellsbury has 3, and as a team the Yankees have yet to be caught stealing once.

The expectation was that the addition of Ellsbury and Roberts would add more speed and balance to the lineup and so far that's exactly what has happened. Once the middle of the order starts picking up their end, the offense could be good enough to get by even without Teix.